Customer Reviews

The Guyana Massacre

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Charles Krausse never had the desire to really investigate the People's Temple, Rev. Jim Jones, or Jonestown. He was assigned to it last minute. In this book which was published shortly after the massacre possibly because of the public's thirst and hunger for details about this unknown group or whatever. Krausse too had no interest and slowly became enthralled with what would be the story of his career if he lived to tell about it.
He writes clearly and details about many things including his contacts with Sherwin Harris, former husband of Linda Sharon Amos who with her children were heavily involved with Rev. Jim Jones. In fact, she was his right hand woman and obeyed JOnes' every command and demand for years. Sharon as she was known would be one of the most devoted and fanatical members of the cult. She ran the headquarters in Georgetown, Guyana. Her ex-husband Sherwin had divorced her almost 20 years ago but wanted to reunite with their daughter, Liane. Sharon followed Jones' final command and murdered her children with a knife before killing herself.
The other members located in Georgetown's Lamaha Gardens including Jones' sons were lucky not have committed the crimes or commit suicide like Sharon committed but then she was a true believer in Jones and would have followed him to the end.
He also writes and tries to fathom the hold by Jim Jones over Grace and Tim Stoen since their son, John Victor, was in Jonestown. Grace and Tim had custody on paper but Jones held their son hostage and threatened to commit mass suicide if John Victor was taken away.
Krausse's view is refreshing because he is completely honest and candid about his short time and the trauma at Port Kaituma airstrip where five victims were killed including Congressman Leo Ryan, reporters-Don Harris, photographer-Greg Robinson, and cameraman Robert Brown, and a defector-Patricia Chaffin Parks.
Krausse's account is useful and the pictures depict the gruesome horror of JOnestown afterwards. He visits Jonestown following the massacre and describes the eerieness that accompanies him as well as the stench of death.

This was an amazing account of the events at Jonestown by a reporter who was traveling with Leo Ryan.
Charles Krause had never heard of Jim Jones or Peoples Temple a few days before he was assigned the story and met up with Ryan for the trip and he really wasn't that interested.He wanted to get in , get his story and get out to go home for Thanksgiving.The trip changed his life forever. He was wounded slightly at the airstrip,saw his companions on the trip die or be shot , thought he would die himself and spent a terrifying night because of Guyanese government incompetence huddled with the survivors, and the injured afraid of being finished off by the shooters.This is a gripping first person narrative.
He was also one of only 3 members of the press allowed back into Jonestown a few days later to report on the carnage.
His stories of meeting people at Jonestown are at once tragic, touching and fascinating.
To me the most compelling part was when he went looking for Maria Kartsaris' body so he could tell her brother Anthony -one of the wounded and their Father that she was indeed dead so they wouldn't have to wait weeks for an official notification.Maria is one of the most interesting people in the whole situation to me.
Even though the book came out quickly after the massacre, its high quality.

Since 1978 many books have been written on the mad Guyanese cult, and several include analysis and information one won't find in this one. After all, 'Guyana Massacre', was published shortly after the mass suicide and was written by a reporter used to getting stories out quickly. So we might be dismissive and expect little here. On the contrary, we have an excellent work by an author who has created an invaluable eyewitness report.

Krause does not sensationalize events, and I was struck by his state of mind throughout the book. Again and again he asks himself the same questions I would have asked myself had I been in his place. One can imagine him lying wounded on the airstrip, cursing himself for not believing the fantastic reports he had heard. And we all feel the horror as he walks among the cult's remains, looking for people he spoke with only hours before.

There are two sets of chapters included. One follows the author in the week of the catastrophe. Another tells the story of the People's Temple and its descent into madness. Both parts are superb, but the eyewitness account is better in that it gives us a close up view no other book can match.

A quick-turnaround mass-market paperback on the Jim Jones cult that committed spectacular suicide in South America in November 1978. Hundreds of U.S. ex-patriots drank cyanide-laced Kool-Aid at the group's jungle compound in French Guyana. Told by Washington Post staff, including the reporter who was with Congressman Ryan at the time of his assassination -- the event which triggered the mass suicide.